by Amy Lignor
What would the Olympic Games be without some sort of conspiracy theory added to the mix?
The biggest ‘event’ that most people will remember regarding an Olympic Games and the sport of figure skating, is the strange battle Harding and her boyfriend began against Nancy Kerrigan. Kerrigan won the silver medal, but she looked more than a little angry when she was standing on her podium that it was not gold. She continued to blame her A instead of A+ performance on the 
work of Harding, who most people remember sitting on the ice and crying because she couldn’t get her skate tied correctly. That was a shame.
This time around, figure skating is still in the spotlight of conspiracy. However, it has nothing to do with an angry American who wants to ‘take down’ another American. This time around it is the Americans and Russians working together in order to win medals.
The Americans responded to the conspiracy ridiculousness by saying: “There is no ‘help’ between countries. We have no further response to rumors, anonymous sources or conjecture.” Roughly translated; “This is the dumbest thing we’ve ever heard.”
The report that ‘surfaced’ (much like a UFO in the National Enquirer stories), stated that a Russian/American arrangement would allow Meryl Davis and Charlie White to be the first Americans to win the gold medal in ice dancing, totally trouncing their rivals from Canada. In return, Russia would be given a definite boost when it came to their team and pair competitions.
Now…when thinking about this report, silly and ridiculous are the adjectives that do come to mind. After all, the Olympics are in Russia; Russia most definitely wants as many medals as humanly possible. This arrangement would mess up their plans to walk 
away from these Games with the ‘best of the best’ title in all figure skating disciplines, which is what they are vying for. Not to mention, the team of Davis and White have not even been beaten for the past two years, which means winning the ice dancing gold is something that’s most likely going to occur anyway.
When they were actually asked about this silly report, the Americans didn’t seem to care much about it. Davis basically just shrugged. Again, it was after they had already earned the top place in the standings for the ice dancing segment.
Scandals will always be a part of the ‘big game’. Whether you are talking about Sochi, or you’re talking about the Super Bowl, judges and refs will always be in the spotlight when it come to making the right call, wrong call, or completely bogus calls. (Right now Broncos’ fans aren’t even bothering, considering the score. However, when looking back at the Niners/Seahawks game that allowed Seattle to actually attend the Super Bowl, refs are still getting slammed for that one.)
The 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics had its own vote-rigging allegations. Even the judge from France, Marie-Reine Le Gougne, ended up banned after admitting she had been “pressured” to back the Russians so that the couple from France could win their ice dancing competition. Although that particular scandal rang with truth and things were taken care of by the Olympic committee, this new Sochi vote-rigging seems idiotic.
If people would like to speak badly about Sochi, they already have a mile of topics to talk about. No scandal even comes close to the apparent rooms with no water (or yellow water); toilets that can not be flushed; tubs and cabinets falling off the walls; and sidewalks, etc., that have not even been built as of yet.
Stick to those, people. A Twitter site is already set up to slam Putin and his crew, so if you need a scandal, head there!
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